This Week's Story

Could Elizabeth trust superintendent McFarland or was he deliberately crushing female independence?

This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.

I shall put you into the asylum! part six

“Todd, Elizabeth Packard was not simple-minded. She rebelled against being stripped of the right to think. She was thirsty for freedom of choice, equality, and her own identity.”

“I agree, Barbara. She was a thinker, teacher, a reader and writer, a charismatic speaker and civil rights activist. People often were attracted to her and what she said. Her voice was needed.

“Her culture in the 1800’s was increasingly in strife. After the first Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 many Americans, men and women, were nationally talking publicly and at home about the question: What rights should women have in society?”

“Changing women’s rights would demand changing laws and how people lived and thought. It meant changes in legal protections, education, opportunities, jobs, leadership roles in and out of home, voting rights, and land ownership.

“I think about individual rights, and if I am honest, I am forced to support or change what I believe. I ask myself how can we agree and

work together as a society? I know that the Bible teaches that God is no respecter of persons. He does not play a game of favorites. He does ask for love and obedience. He states the necessity of being aware of the logical consequences of actions along with giving freedom of choice.”

“Elizabeth’s husband Theophilus did not think a man should be forced to respect rights for a woman. They increasingly disagreed about the topic. She often won the arguments, because she had a much better command of language. His ideas did not change, and he became jealous of her. His basic argument was to quote the Bible verse, ‘Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands.’”

“Todd, I think that Elizabeth’s intelligence gave her cat feelers for noticing how people around her acted and felt. She knew her husband was not interested in her ideas. He wanted her to fulfill his expectations to support him as a wife and mother. Her sparkle, creativity, and loving friendliness threatened his personal security and belief that she was to be subject to him.”

“When Elizabeth’s husband committed her to Jacksonville Insane Asylum, she was thrilled to talk daily to the superintendent, Dr. McFarland, who listened intently to her and shared thoughtful responses. She concluded that he was kind and perhaps a protector for her.”

“Then the longer Elizabeth heard the women of Seventh Ward share their stories, the more she realized that the asylum was not treating sick people. It was a place to produce social control. Women must not deviate from social standards. Deviation was called moral insanity. “

“Elizabeth became determined that she would convince Dr. McFarland that she was sane. She became aware from other patients that many were being punished and mistreated by asylum staff and Dr. McFarland. She was skeptical at first, that abuse was occurring. She decided she would be an eye and ear witness as to what was really happening in the asylum.”

Soon you can join Todd, Barbara, and I for part seven of this series touching historical issues that have challenged society in the past and present.

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